Re: Tourism Promotion (E.80,000 to be invested in marketing Cork tourism, postering and PR literature)

Lord Mayor, this is a very welcome addition of funding.

I would like to ask where does Cork Marketing Partnership, the Cork Festival Forum fit into this campaign.

I know from recent meetings I had with people in the tourism market in Cork that Bravo communications hold the grasp on any advertising in our Railway Station and Bus Station. Those rights need to be negociated so that we can move forward with putting up posters and literature. The Cork 2005 posters in the Bus Station should be taken down and replaced. Both the bus station and rail station are devoid of literature – and as for the airport we also undersell ourselves and the festival work that goes on in the city.

You get off a plane in Cork and the first site that was presented to you recently was go visit the Giant’s Causeway in Antrim. That would be fair enough if you thought in somewhere like Belfast that a similar sign said, come to Cork City but I was recently in Belfast airport and you’re met with a mini tourist office pushing Belfast as a cultural destination and also telling what events are coming up in months to come enticing the visitor back.

Cork has a product, which is better than Belfast. We have a lonely planet accolade but again no directional signs exist to show tourists who get off the Cork Swansea Ferry, where Cork is. I have seen the Ferry’s tourist literature and I wish to complement all those involved in it.

I’m also worried at the Discover Ireland campaign which pitches Galway as the festival capital and we have 100 festive days in Cork – that is worth talking about – in addition within the brochure, only two Cork City hotels took an ad out within in. Which means that a large part of the two pages with the magazine dedicated Cork-Kerry region was dedicated to activities in Kerry.

I’m still concerned at the clamping signs that were to be revisited last summer and replaced with friendlier signs. I see from figures released publicly by the roads department that the influx of traffic into the our multi-storey carpark is down 3.6 % -that equates to the bones of a loss of income to Cork City Council from 1,000 cars and loss of income to the city centre.

We have an amazing city to offer – as part of my own work last Friday, I had to show 30 national tour guides around the city centre. I had to stop at St Patrick’s Quay and was presented with a barely readable sign welcome to Cork City. My audience commented that we have a fantastic walking city and that is an aspect that should be developed but because they noted we undersell ourselves, tourists are brought to place who fight more for tourist share.

So I want to know where is the strategy? Where is the plan? I wish to propose a call for a swot analysis on the tourist potential for Cork City by all those that we as a City Council fund.

North Monastery Proposal, Cork City Council Meeting, 12 April 2010

Re: the creation of a geological museum

Lord Mayor, I welcome any proposal that encourages education and tourism in the city. The connection with the North Mon is very apt in a year when we have a commemorative committee looking a celebrating the life of Tomas McCurtain, a past pupil of the North Mon

However, the proposal in the appendix of the report given by UCC is abit trína chéile. It does not focus on any one topic and is very similar to the successful operation in Blackrock Castle. The topics promoted by UCC are similar to those in Blackrock Castle in terms of Geology in education.

I have nothing against geology being aware that there is a crater on the moon named after a Cork woman and mid nineteenth century astronomer Agnes Clerke and being aware that the Cork flag promotes our white limestone and red sandstone.

I would like to see other aspects of the history of scientific study promoted in the city especially being aware that two great scientists emerged from the North Mon in the late nineteenth century.

In 1857 Br. James Dominic Burke arrived at the North Monastery and under his guidance the students began the study of natural philosophy (science). Br. Burke, widely acknowledged as the father of vocational education in Ireland, made the ‘Mon’ a centre of excellence in scientific and technical education upon which many other schools would later be modelled. Br. Burke closely followed the work of Thomas Edison in New Jersey in the 1870s.

By 1879, he had produced a new concept: a high resistance lamp in a very high vacuum, which would burn for hundreds of hours. Edison concentrated on commercial application, and was able to sell the concept to homes and businesses by mass-producing relatively long-lasting light bulbs and creating a complete system for the generation and distribution of electricity.

With those developments in mind, Br Burke brought the idea of the electric light bulb into the contemporary City Council and put on a display at the 1883 Cork Industrial Exhibition. The concept adopted by our predecessors led to the formation of the Cork Electric Tramway Company,  now the location of the National Sculpture Factory.

The second important individual who emerged as an important figure in international science was  Br. John P. Holland  studied in the ‘Mon’ under the guidance of Br. Burke. He (inventor of the submarine)

The Holland class were the first submarines built for the Royal Navy. The Hollands were built under licence from the Holland Torpedo Boat Company/Electric Boat Company during the year 1901 to 1903.

I wish for that kind of science connected with ideas of modernity to be explored. I wish to propose that the City Council investigate the addition of the work of the great men Dominic Burke and John P. Holland to be added and celebrated in any museum in the North Mon.

Kieran’s Motions, 12 April 2010, Cork City Council Meeting

Motions:

That the window problem at the social housing unit at 23 Elderwood Drive, Boreenmanna Road be resolved immediately. This problem was first officially logged last June 2009 but has been an unresolved issue for the past two years (Cllr K McCarthy)

That the publicity given by Leisureworld to Bishopstown and Churchfield Swimming Pools respectively be also extended to Douglas Pool (e.g. be included on its website and poster promotions) (Cllr K McCarthy)

Question to the City Manager:

What is the legal justification, by reference to the terms and conditions of employment, for Council employees’ refusal to co-operate and deal with elected councillors’ queries on behalf of their constituents? (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)